1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a software management process, a software management apparatus, and a computer-readable medium storing a software management program for managing software installed in a plurality of clients through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent progress in the downsizing and cost reduction in the computers enables each user of the computers to use more than one computer, and the current computer users can properly use more than one computer according to the occasion. For example, a single user can use a desktop computer indoors, and a portable (laptop) computer or a PDA (personal Digital Assistant) outdoors. Further, more than one operation may be executed in parallel by concurrently using more than one computer.
In some cases, an identical type of software is installed in a plurality of computers so that similar operations are executed in the plurality of computers. For example, software for transmission and reception of electronic mails (e-mails) may be installed in both of a desktop computer and a laptop computer so that e-mails can be transmitted or received at either of the desktop computer and the laptop computer. However, in the case where an identical type of software is installed in a plurality of computers, manual operations are required to be performed on all the computers when the settings of the software is changed, so that a heavy burden is imposed on the user. For example, when an e-mail address is changed, it is necessary to manually change the setting of the e-mail address in all the computers.
In some techniques proposed for solving the above problem (as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 5-298223 and 2001-34580), a plurality of computers (hereinafter referred to as clients) to be managed are connected to a server computer (hereinafter referred to as a server) through a network, and the server controls information on the settings of software (software-setting information) in a centralized manner. (Hereinafter, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 5-298223 and 2001-34580 are respectively referred to as JPP 5-298223 and JPP 2001-34580.) According to the above techniques, the server stores the latest software-setting information at all times, and each client acquires the latest software-setting information for use on start-up. Thus, it is possible to easily equalize the settings of the software in the plurality of computers, so that the burden of the operation for changing the settings of the software imposed on the user can be greatly reduced.
Nevertheless, a method for concurrently using the plurality of clients is not considered in the techniques disclosed in JPP 5-298223 and 2001-34580, and the disclosed techniques lack flexibility for the following reasons.
In many cases in which the plurality of clients are concurrently used, different roles are assigned to the respective clients. In such cases, the settings of the software in the clients are intentionally differentiated. Therefore, it is not desirable to automatically set identical information to all the clients. However, the above techniques cannot flexibly determine what software-setting information should be used in each client.
In addition, in some cases in which a plurality of clients are concurrently used, the settings of software in only specific ones of the clients are required to be simultaneously changed. For example, in the case where parallel processing is performed by using two clients, the settings of software in the two clients are required to be simultaneously changed. On the other hand, according to the techniques disclosed in JPP 5-298223 and 2001-34580, the user is required to perform an operation of acquiring the software-setting information stored in the server, so that it is impossible to simultaneously change the settings of the software at a predetermined time.